DARLINGTON, WISC., May 1953May 1953

Insufficient Data

Summary

On May 31, 1953, eleven people in Darlington and Monroe, Wisconsin reported seeing a brilliant white light in the sky. The object appeared low on the eastern horizon and rose to approximately 80 degrees elevation, or nearly straight overhead, before vanishing. Some witnesses said it traveled extremely fast and was bright enough to light up the landscape.

The Air Force sent two investigators, including Lieutenant Olsson and a contract astronomer, to Darlington on June 17, 1953. During their interviews with the witnesses, they discovered that the object's path very closely matched the position of Venus on May 31. Based on this finding, the Air Force concluded the sighting was astronomical in nature, caused by the planet Venus.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, 8 pages.

Reported location

DARLINGTON, WISC., May 1953

Date of incident

May 1953

State / country

? / XX

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 18

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 8

View transcribed text

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+ DA] o LOCATION oe SOURCE 1 ;
| 31 MAY 1953 DARLINGTON, WISC. © GOC: Local Police : rng
o Tin NUMBER OF OBJECTS |G HAP COLOR
Local 0320 CI
Z DB Ad

Bo COURSE §. ALTITUL 5. ANGULAR VELOCITY |1l. PHOTOS | :
(2, TYPE OF 13. LENGTH OF TIME e MANEUVERS

: OBSERVATION OBSERVED

; ; Ground-Visual 8 hrs. |

[5. CONCLUSIO [6, COMMENTS

: A brilliant white light was sighted by | 1. Project personnel (Lt Olsson and con-

3 11 people in Darlington and Monroe, Wisc.| tract astronomer) made a TDY trip to

4 Object appeared low in the Eastern sky the sighting area on 17 Jun 53.

3 and rose to approx 80° elevation before 2. From interrogation it was discovered :

4 ~~ | disappearing. Reported by some to be object very closely paralleled course

] traveling extremely fast and lighted up | of Venus on 31 May 53. : :
& landscape.
1 Was Astronomical-Venus

: ATIC Form 329 (Rev 27 May 52
1

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28954785